Travel assessment

[pensnest]

Okay, folks, I think I have figured this out, but PLEASE check to make sure I haven't missed you out of my calculations!

Saba and Sperrywink are arriving at Heathrow and Gatwick respectively on Friday morning.

Fleur, Bettina, Chalcopyrite and Bubbleforest arrive at Stansted during Friday.

Ninjetti, Turlough and Fadedsouls arrive on Thursday and spend the night chez Pen. (Turlough, if you end up visiting family instead, I'll assume you can make your way to Stansted to join the pick-up list there.)

I propose that my Beast does the Heathrow and Gatwick pick-ups and takes Saba and Sperrywink along to Camp. (He can also take the shepherd's pies, so that they can be heating up before my minibusload arrives!)

I will have my three housemates, and we'll get along to Stansted in the late afternoon to collect Fleur, Bettina, Chalcopyrite and Bubbleforest. I'm afraid that means some of you—especially Bubbleforest—will have to hang around at the airport for a while, but unless I can think of a handy, fun thing to do in the vicinity of Stansted, there isn't much option.

Now, as to the day in London/Concert:

Beast, Stellamira and Fleur want to go into London but are not going to see NKOTBSB.

Pen, Saba, Titch, Ninjetti, Nopseud, Bettina, Rikes, Bubbleforest, Fadedsouls, Trumpeterofdoom and Chalcopyrite all want to get back to Portsmouth from the concert. If I can hire a 12-seater minibus, it'll be a bit less intimidating for me to drive through London, and will accommodate us all with a seat to spare for the luggage.

I suggest that I drive in the minibus all of us from Camp who want to spend the day in London, and then the three of you who are not going to the concert make your own arrangements for getting back down to Gosport. Is that going to work for you guys? If so, it may be pleasanter for you to return together, and (if necessary) share a taxi from the station. If you're okay with this, it may well be more economical to book your train tickets in advance (or for Beast to do so), so let me know what sort of time you would like to leave town.

We'll be staying in an area we haven't explored before, and Nopseud has looked at possible outings, which seem to be things we can do pretty locally. However, if we do want to jaunt off a bit further afield, we'll have 12 seats in the minibus, plus our car, plus (I assume) Nopseud's car, so there shouldn't be a problem getting everyone to wherever.

HAVE I MISSED ANYONE? ARE THERE FLAWS TO THIS PLAN?


ETA: ahahahahahahahaha. Hah.

Okay, then.

A revised plan sees me and my overnighters (Adelate, Ninjetti, Turlough and Fadedsouls) heading to Heathrow on Friday morning to fetch Saba, and thence on to Gatwick for Sperrywink, Mette and CJ. We'll go to Camp and set up housekeeping. Beast will drive the car to Stansted for Chalcopyrite, Fleur and Bettina, who're all arriving sometime during the afternoon.

As for Saturday, we're now looking at Beast driving into London and planning to drive himself back at the end of the tourist day with CJ, Adelate, Fleur and Mira. Bit of a squeeze but some of you are Quite Small and can snuggle into the back seat together. It's possible Beast won't drive to Greenwich but will park in Shepherd's Bush instead, at the mega shopping centre (which Rikes may remember from our Glambert experience), which will make it easier for his morning passengers to get into the city centre. Note that he probably won't want to be too late leaving town, so anyone wanting to stay late can either beg a place on the minibus or arrange to get the train back to Portsmouth/Gosport.

And I will drive everyone else to park at the O2 in the minibus, and drive the following people back after the concert: me, Saba, Titch, Josh, Nopseud, Bettina, Rikes, Mette, Fadedsouls, Chalcopyrite.

NB: If any of the non-concert day trippers wants to spend a late evening in London, we can accommodate up to two more on the minibus home trip IF I have the numbers right (and assuming the luggage can be arranged around us)! Also, if anyone particularly wants to be in the middle of London early on, you can fight for the available spaces in the car. But there are touristy things to do in the Greenwich area, eg Greenwich Observatory, and things on the eastmost side of the city centre, like the Tower, which won't take *too* much time by Tube.

So, take two: HAVE I MISSED ANYONE? ARE THERE FLAWS TO THIS PLAN?

Comments

[trumpeterofdoom.livejournal.com]

I am NOT following the minibus back from London to Portsmouth! Normally I would, but seeing as I have really good tickets for the second London show, I will make my way to Portsmouth myself on the Monday!

I will however, need a seat from Portsmouth back to Chez Pen, and then a lift to Heathrow. I'm so sorry if I confused anyone!

[pensnest]

I think my brain will break if I try to figure out the return journey right now, but let's assume we'll be able to get everyone to the right airports in time for their flights. I'm pretty sure it'll work out.

I should have known you'd be going to both concerts!

[sperrywink]

That works for me!

(SQUEE!!! So excited!!)

[pensnest]

Yay! Remind me what time you're due in at Gatwick?

[adelate]

ihearthings_ii is on the same flight as bubbleforest is. Aaaaaand are CJ and I going to mess up the entire minibus situation if we want to go on it as well? D: I need to not fail this badly at LJ, omg.

[pensnest]

Are you and CJ going to the concert?

[bubbleforest.livejournal.com]

Crap, I'm sorry, I think I said Stansted by default last time without thinking! I'm definitely landing in Gatwick, along with ihearthings_ii at Friday around noon. Sorry. /o\

[pensnest]

That's okay - it may mean Beast and I switch assignments!

[fleurrochard]

Have I told you when I arrive at Stansted? (15.20, in case I didn't.)

Driving back from London together sounds like a good idea, but for the time I'd want to leave... huh. When do we plan to arrive in London? (I'm planning to meet a friend there who'll drive down from Birmingham, so it would be good if I had an aproximate ETA.)

As for going back I'll take a train on Thursday afternoon/evening and stay the night from Thursday to Friday at Ephemera's and get to Stansted from there on Friday morning. (So I won't be staying the last night at Camp.)

[pensnest]

See my edited post! If your friend is coming from Birmingham it might be a good idea to arrange to meet at the Westfield Shopping Centre—assuming Beast decides to park there—as it is not difficult to get to and will provide somewhere interesting for whoever gets there first to wait in.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_titch/]

Sounds splendid!

As I am going to have luggage, I was wondering if there might be an idea of when you would be arriving at the o2 so I can throw my bag in the minivan and thus don't have to worry about carting it around? My train ticket shall need to be purchased soon-ish if I am to get the cheaper fare.

[pensnest]

I would estimate 11 - 12 am, depending on how soon everyone wants to get going. We can communicate in detail during the journey, but I think that'd be a fair bet. Unless there's a revolution, and everyone is ready to rise and shine at 6am and get going at seven!

[chalcopyrite.livejournal.com]

Sounds good to me!

[turlough]

I think that if I end up spending the night at my sister's it's easier for me to get myself to Gatwick than to Stanstead. (They live on the edge of Blackheath, just northwest of Greenwich Park.)

[pensnest]

That'll be fine—in fact, it'll be more comfortable for you to come via Gatwick, as it looks as though I and the minibus will be doing that collection now.

[saba1789.livejournal.com]

FLAW!!!!!!!!! :(

I am so sorry but I'm not actually arriving in the morning but at ~2:30 pm. Which means I'd probably better go by train because I think the Gatwick people are arriving earlier than that. I would probably like some train assistance but let me get back to you on that :) .

[pensnest]

Yeah, having looked at the train from Heathrow, I think we'll find a way to pick you up! If I need to double back to Heathrow, it's not actually that far off the route to Camp—alternatively it may be possible for Nopseud to collect you on her way. We'll figure it out.

[rikes]

Sounds good to me! :) And thank you again for the massive amounts of organising you do for Camp! ♥

[adelate]

I second this! Especially as some of us [coughcough]meeee[cough] get so late about commenting to organizational posts.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_bettina_/]

Sounds good to me! :)

[stellamira]

Sounds good to me. Do you have a (tentative) time schedule yet? My plane arrives around 5-ish on Saturday, I'm guessing that's early enough to catch the car back to Camp? But it'd be nice to know if there's time for some sight-seeing still and if so, whether I'll have to drag my luggage around or if I could leave it in either care or minibus.

[pensnest]

Bah - I seem to have put my reply in the wrong comment field - see below.

[pensnest]

Ah - you're not in the car going into London, just going to Camp afterwards. Right.

I can't remember which airport you're coming into—presumably Heathrow? I would not bet on being able to do much in the way of sightseeing, because if you land at 5-ish you probably won't leave the airport much before six, and it'll take a while after that to get into the centre of London. There's certainly no point trying to make it to the minibus, as that would involve crossing the whole of London to get to the O2, which I should think will take at least another hour—at which point you'd probably have to go straight back to meet the car people.

I can't make any promises about your luggage, as it's quite possible Beast will be somewhere near Greenwich with me at that stage, so you won't have access to the car. I would imagine (she says, cautiously) he'd want to start for Camp before it gets dark, but you should certainly have time to get there for the ride home. It might be plausible to meet up with the other non-concert-goers for dinner, but that'll depend on timings and what you all decide on as a good time to head out of town.

[stellamira]

Yes, Heathrow. It's okay if all I get to see is tube stations on the way to the city center, I'll stay in London a few days after Camp anyway. The dinner option sounds good, but I guess that depends on the others.

[ninjetti75.livejournal.com]

WHEEEEE!

All looks well to me (he says after reviewing the revised plan, even later on LJ than Noora...), with the possible exception that I may be one of the people fighting for a space in the car to be in the middle of London early on. That part is tentative, as I'm trying to arrange to meet up with Terri for lunch or somesuch, just for the chance to see her on my annual visit. We're still attempting to work the details of such a thing out...if this turns out to be possible, does that mean Terri would be best off trying to meet up at the Sheppard's Bush mega shopping centre? And how convoluted is it to get from there to the O2?
*haz NO IDEA what he is doing, really*

[pensnest]

Urg. I think the question of who gets to be in the car will be up to you all to fight out - bearing in mind there are only four plausible places. Obviously those are allocated to non-concert-goers for the way home, but who goes to Shepherd's Bush on the way in and who goes to the O2 first will be a matter of special pleading, I guess.

The O2 is handily placed on the Jubilee tube line, so anyone who's going into London for the day, whether by minibus or by car, can get into the middle of the city without particular difficulty. I'm assuming that some people who're on the minibus will do tourist stuff in the Greenwich area—most probably go to the Greenwich Observatory—but people can perfectly well go into the West End or wherever. Though if Terri is going to be in London, and you end up travelling on the minibus, you probably would do best to arrange a rendezvous on the eastern side of things.

[ihearthings-ii.livejournal.com]

If possible, I (as a non-concert goer) would like to stay late in London? I have a few friends in town I haven't seen ages, and I think I'd like to go out and have a few drinks with at least one of them. :P

[pensnest]

That should be no problem, and you can either train back down to Camp, or make your way to join us in the minibus. I believe there's capacity. :-)